Category: Crustaceans

Haberma tingkok that’s the name given to a new species of mangrove crab that climbs in trees along the eastern coast of Hong Kong. It was collected from branches between five and six feet high.

It has a dark brown upper shell, or carapace, long, thin legs that are light brown, and its claws, or chelipeds, are a brownish orange.

Mangrove crabs are quite small. The collected specimens measured between 8 and 9 millimeters in length, less than a third of an inch.

Scientists from the University of Hong Kong and the National University of Singapore described the new species in the journal ZooKeys.

The genus Haberma now contains three species. Peter Ng, a marine biologist at NUS and co-author of the latest study, established the genus 15 years ago and helped discover all three species (the other two are H. nanum and H. kamora).

H. tingkok was named after the Ting Kok mangrove stand, in Tolo Harbour, where it was found in the mid intertidal area. The area is the largest mangrove stand on the eastern coast of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s mangroves and the species they shelter are under threat from pollution and land reclamation projects.